Hold Me Forever
by Saint Mirror
Summary: Sequel to A Night Alone With You. James's reaction to seeing Sirus and Lily together.


A/N: This is the sequel to A Night Alone with You. _(sigh)_ Anyway...I hope you enjoy this, this took several months to complete and…I decided that I should write this seeing as I kind of left you guys hanging with the other one…

My muse was not very helpful today...he doesn't like Harry Potter stories...so annoying.

**Disclaimer: **I think the word 'disclaimer' says it all…

Hold Me Forever

"James…." Sirius whispered, horrified. James had an unreadable expression on his face. He opened his mouth and faintly said, "I was worried about you…you weren't in your bed."

Sirius slowly backed away from James. He knew that, while James was in shock now, he would soon snap out of his surprise and that, when he did, there would be hell to pay. Sirius also knew that his friendship with James had now been seriously compromised and now nothing between the two marauders would ever be the same. All Sirius could hope was that he and James could at least remain friends.

James was in a state of shock-induced denial. Though his eyes showed him the truth plainly, his brain just refused to believe that Sirius, his _best friend_, had just been about to shag the girl he'd been after since 2nd year.

James shook his head as though he were trying to erase the image of absolute ecstasy that had been on his beloved Lily's face when his equally beloved friend had been pleasuring her.

He just couldn't grasp the fact that he was staring at a naked Sirius Black and an equally naked Lily Evans. His brilliant brain couldn't process the fact that Sirius had been about to fuck James's girl. This thought brought James crashing back to earth.

His eyes widened.

'_No. This is so wrong. Sirius would never betray me like this. He's my best mate. This has to be a spell or illusion of some kind.'_

James started laughing, startling the two naked people in front of him.

"James…?"

Suddenly he spun around and started shouting down the hall, "Okay, Moony, I get it. You can stop playing around now."

Hearing James call out Moony as if this was just some joke brought an almost physical pain to Sirius's heart. He knew what was going through his beloved friend's mind: _'Sirius would never betray me like this. This has to be fake.'_ But Sirius knew that it was real. He had been about to make love to the girl he loved: the girl James loved.

"James…"

James spun around.

"Hey, you two get dressed. When Moony comes to break whatever spell he has on you, I don't want to have to see you naked."

Lily picked up her wand from where she left it on the ground. With a flick of her wrist and a muttered spell, both her and Sirius clothes were back on their bodies. Glad to have clothing as a sort of weak barrier against James's wrath, Sirius began to explain.

"James…this isn't a joke…"

"It has to be."

Sirius continued. "But it's not. This is me, Sirius, and next to me is Lily. This is no joke."

James narrowed his eyes at Sirius.

"You're lying. Everyone knows that Sirius is my best mate and that he'd NEVER betray me like this." James turned and started calling for Moony again.

"James…"

"Moony!"

"James, please…"

"MOONY!!"

"I can PROVE I'm who I say I am!"

James abruptly stopped yelling and turned to Sirius.

"Then prove it. Tell me his middle name."

"MY middle name is Orion."

James just stared at him.

"You could have found that out somehow. I bet now you're going to try and tell me his birthday and expect me to believe it. There is nothing you can say that will make…"

"The day I left my home my parents had just finished beating me."

James could hear the girl, the one he now knew to be Lily, gasp. It was no wonder either. Sirius had never told anyone but him the real reason he had left. Sirius…the boy who he had caught about to push his cock into Lily's waiting pussy. James growled as he felt the pain of betrayal rage through his body. Sirius… with a yell, James attacked.

"James, no!! Stop!!"

Through the haze of anger and pain, James could hear Lily's frightened scream. Beneath his pounding fists he could see the face of his best friend, now bruised and bloody, staring up at him. James realized that Sirius, traitor that he was, was not fighting back. In fact he was letting him beat up on him.

Suddenly James felt drained of all anger. It was, instead, replaced with a feeling of acute emptiness. James pushed himself off Sirius and locked gazes with him.

"Sirius…why? You know I love her. How could you do this to me?" James's voice, which had grown louder the angrier he became, had now dropped down to barely a whisper.

Sirius looked away, shamefaced, and settled in a sitting position.

"James, I'm sorry, but…I've always loved her. I can't help it. Everytime I see her, it's like the world's just gotten brighter, and I feel that, if she'll just touch me, everything will be okay. I didn't mean to betray you."

Lily's heart clenched tighter and tighter with every word Sirius uttered. He sounded so apologetic, so sad and lost that she just wanted to go to him and wrap her arms around him and soothe away all his fears, but she knew that now wasn't the proper time for that. As much as she disliked James, she didn't like to see people hurting.

Lily's brilliant emerald eyes darkened with sorrow as she watched the two friends regard each other as if they were seeing each other in an entirely new light which for James was true. He had never imagined his best friend would ever fall in love, least of all with Lily.

Looking back on all the times he had asked Lily out, James now saw that her eyes didn't always light up when she saw him. No, when he was alone, she would ignore him or answer his numerous requests with a resolute and coldly formal no, but…when Sirius was by his side, she was more animated and actually bantered back and forth with them.

'How could I have missed it? The signs were all there staring me in the face, but I was too wrapped up in myself to notice that the love of my life loved another…my best mate.' Misery once again flooded James heart as indecision filled him. What should he do?

"What do we do now?" Sirius and James broke eye contact to stare at Lily with identical looks of confusion. James was the first to speak.

"What do you mean? It's obvious that Sirius and I can no longer be friends. He's a traitor and I can't trust him anymore." James only heard the gasp of pain that came from Sirius, but he could imagine the expression of horror that would be writ upon his handsome features. Refusing to look at his former best friend, James instead stared at Lily, willing her to say that she didn't really want to be with Sirius, that it was just a one time thing that he'd interrupted anyway, but she remained silent, staring at him angrily.

"Why can't you two be friends? Is it because of some imaginary claim you think you have on me? I don't belong to anyone, Potter, least of all you. He's your best friend. How many times have you told me he was like your brother? Is that bond so easily broken?" James stared at her incredulously while she ranted. She paused for breath and turned her head from him, disgust with his behavior apparent in all her movements. She walked over to Sirius and knelt down next to him. Sirius was staring and the floor, a blank expression in his grey eyes. She gently tucked some of his black hair behind one ear, and he flinched, his eyes going fearfully to James.

Lily sighed and glared at James.

"I love _him_, James, not you. Why can't you understand that?" She pulled Sirius into a loving embrace, soothing the distraught Marauder as best she could. Sirius buried his face in her neck and tried to forget all about James and the betrayal he felt. For now, it was only him and his love.

"Hold me forever, Lily. Don't ever let me go." Lily hugged him tighter; both had completely forgotten James who stood there staring at the scene in painful silence.

"I won't, Sirius." James began to walk away back toward their homeroom, emotions all tangled in the complex web that was love, or unrequited love of a sort for him. He had to face two drastic and painful realizations. First, his Lily was in love with his best friend, and second, he didn't want his relationship with said friend to end. No matter how painful it was, James couldn't seriously see his life without Sirius by his side.

James realized he was at the portal leading to the Gryffindor common rooms. Mumbling the password, he stepped inside and went straight to his bed in the boys' dormitories. Settling down on his bed, he lay on his back, pulled the curtains around his four-poster shut and cried.

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--- What a weird way to end it all, huh? Well that's what I get for watching Pearl Harbor and Titanic back to back; I couldn't write a happy ending to save my soul. Well I hope the ending didn't disappoint you.


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